In summer 1995 things were very different. Britpop ruled the world, everyone was watching Peak Practice and it was actually sunny (we think). Best of all, everyone was humming a sunny fuzz-guitar pop diamond called Girl From Mars by three 17 year olds called Ash. 12 years later and Ash are still only 30, but are now veteran rock ‘n’ roll stars, with awards, albums and a Charlotte Hatherley in their back catalogue.
Our intrepid reporter, Cathy Elves met up with bass player, Mark, to talk New York, saving the planet and why new album Twilight Of The Innocents is their last.
You’ve built your own studio in New York. Tell us about it.
Basically we’ve built our own energy efficient studio in New York where we know all the energy is supplied from renewable sources. We also produced the whole of Twilight Of The Innocents there ourselves. I’m really into doing everything we can about global warming and I even wrote to Richard Branson asking him to offset Virgin Atlantic’s carbon emissions. He hasn’t replied as yet.
So you’ve moved to New York now?
I just got sick of London and had felt I’d lost my passion for things. When our tour to America finished that year, I kind of just ended up staying. I’ve definitely found a deeper political interest now I’ve moved here… I’m passionately against Bush and his cronies.
Where do you go out?
To the Lower East Side as that’s where all the bars are but I generally like to stay in Brooklyn as it’s so much cooler than Manhattan – and loads of places to go for drinks.
What music are you listening to at the moment?
I’m far more influenced by American music than British music. The stuff I’m listening to on my MP3 player at the moment are A Brand New and Muse.
Where do you go on holiday?
I go snowboarding and I particularly like the West Coast and Tahoe.
So what are these rumours about this being your last album?
We just think that downloading is the future and definitely the greenest way of releasing records. We will only do singles in the future. We just don’t want to get stuck back in the three year cycle of releasing an album.
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This is an interview with bass player Mark, who lives in New York rather than Rick, who lives in Scotland, right?
You'd think getting the interviewees name right would be the first priority of the journalist. The next would be spelling those names correctly - so that's Charlotte Hatherley, not Charlotte Hatherly.
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Posted by: embra | 05/07/2007 at 09:29 AM
haha, yeah and also the song is Girl FROM Mars not Girl ON Mars!
Posted by: Alan | 05/07/2007 at 02:53 PM